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Tuesday, November 08, 2016

November 8, 2016

This
week's Tuesday Timeline entry is going to play out
a little differently than it has in previous months. You'll see why as I progress through it. It's part history in the making, and part
opinion piece. But don't worry...I
promise in this piece, I won't be attacking anybody. Just making a few observations.

Let's
go ahead with what events took place on the 8th of November throughout history.

1837 - The Mount Holyoke Female Seminary (which
would later become Mount Holyoke College) is founded by Mary Lyon

1861 - The "Trent Affair" occurs during
the American Civil War which causes a crisis of diplomacy between America and
the United Kingdom

1887 - John Henry "Doc" Holliday dies
at the age of 36

1889 - Montana becomes the forty-first state to
join the United States of America

1933 - The Civil Works Administration is unveiled
by President Roosevelt during the Great Depression

1947 - Singer Minnie Riperton (d. 1979) is born in
Chicago, Illinois

1957 - Pan Am Flight 7 disappears en route
between San Francisco and Honolulu; bodies and pieces of the plane are
discovered a week later

1960 - John F. Kennedy wins the American
Presidential Election, making him the 35th elected President of the United
States

1965 - The death penalty is abolished in the
United Kingdom

1966 - The National Football League merges with
the American Football League as a direct result of an antitrust exemption
signed by President Johnson

1972 - HBO makes its network debut

1973 - The severed ear of John Paul Getty III is
delivered to the offices of a newspaper, complete with a ransom note demanding
almost three million dollars cash in exchange for John Paul's life

2011 - Asteroid 2005 YU55 passes by Earth within
a distance of just 201,700 miles - the closest that an asteroid has ever gotten
to the Earth's surface; also on this date, cartoonist Bil Keane and rapper
Heavy D pass away

Okay...now
it's time to look at the date we'll be going back in time to. Hope you're ready because this time we're
going all the way back to...

...wait
a minute. November 8, 2016? That's TODAY'S date! Have I made a mistake?

Actually,
no. I haven't. I've decided that today is a great day to
stop the Tuesday Timeline express because we are on the cusp of what could be
considered one of the most important elections that the United States of
America has ever seen. An election that
has not just Americans talking, but the entire world. As someone who lives just a few kilometres away from the New York
state border, I sort of have a bird's eye view of the circus that this election
has spawned.

And
believe you and me...it is a circus of epic proportions. Maybe not quite as scandalous as Britney
Spears' song of the same name, but close to it. It almost makes me glad that in my own nation of Canada, our
elections were nowhere near as crazy!

So,
today is election day for over 300 million Americans. And one by one at polling stations from Spokane, Washington to
Baltimore, Maryland will be busy with men and women, Republicans and Democrats,
and people of all backgrounds will be casting a vote to determine who the next
President will be. By the end of today,
either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump will be packing up their belongings and moving into 1600 Pennsylvania
Avenue for at least the next four years.

Well,
okay...I suppose Jill Stein and Gary Johnson are running too, but unless something happens that cancels out every
vote in the lower 48 states, I doubt either one of those two will win.

Regardless
of who ends up winning, I encourage any and all Americans out there to make
their voices heard. I've seen a few
people who have made the claim that their vote doesn't matter, but I don't
believe that to be true for a second.
Every single person in the United States has their right to throw their
support towards a candidate, and every person who is registered to vote has the
chance to make history by casting a vote for the next President of the United
States, just as we Canadians made history by voting in the Canadian elections
last October.

So,
I guess the message I'm sending is - vote, vote, vote! And make sure you are as informed as you can
possibly be about each candidate before you pull the lever or put a check mark
in that box or shoot a blue or red paintball at a target or however you
Americans cast a vote these days. And
what I mean by informed voting is making sure you know everything that a
candidate promises and making a decision based on fact and not fiction.

And,
yeah...don't trust any opinions on CNN, MSNBC, FOX or any other news
source. When it comes to politics, no
media source is 100% fair and balanced, no matter how much they may proclaim
that they are. We are often our own
best judges of our character and our choices, so go with what you feel is the
right choice. I certainly won't judge you
on who you vote for.

For
that matter, I don't think ANYONE should judge anyone based on who they vote
for. Well, unless you're one of Donald
Trump's kids and you vote for Hillary.
But that's not likely to happen.

I've
seen so many cases of people verbally abusing others based on their support for
a candidate that they don't like. I've
seen photos and videos of people vandalizing other people's homes because they
have a Trump or Clinton sign on their front lawn. I've seen people who have been friends for twenty or more years
fall out because of the election. It's
just getting extremely ugly, and honestly I am really looking forward to today
being over as a result of it. There's
no need for anger and hatred. As far as
I'm concerned, no matter who wins the election, all of you Americans are in
this together.

Well,
unless you all start another Civil War - which I DO NOT RECOMMEND YOU DO.

What
I'm saying is that this election is probably one of the most important ones
that many of you in America will see for a while. It's also one of the most controversial, as many of you believe
that you deserve better choices than the ones you got. Frankly, I agree with that statement - but I
also remind you that you all CHOSE these nominees through the various state
primary elections. You could have had
the chance to change things back then, but many of you sat it out - all the
more reason for everyone to exercise their right to vote.

After
all, prior to the 1920s, only half the population of the country was eligible
to vote as women didn't win the right to vote until 1919.

We're in the home stretch now. By the end of today, America will have a new
President. Hopefully Americans will
make the choice that is best for them - but more importantly, I hope they make
the choice that will ultimately be best for their country. After all, the person you choose will have
four years to build a case and prove themselves.